With safaris being conducted this way, I don't think anyone can object on the basis of animal cruelty

I'm not sure of you're just trying to be an agent provocateur for the sake of arguing, but of course they bloody-well can.

Hunting is a supremely random activity.

You are launching bits of metal at a mobile target with the aim of ripping through flesh, muscle and bone in order to hit a vital organ for a quick kill - if that is indeed what the aim is. Sometimes it isn't - hunters often talk about the thrill of the chase AFTER the first wounding shot to finish the minimal off.

And that's three samples - I am pretty damn sure there are much uglier episodes that go on that we'll never see.

Putting aside your unproven hypothesis that elephants need to be shot, I go back to my original question: what is the frickin' point? Here's a frickin' idea: go to Africa. See the elephant. Take a frickin' picture of it. Go home. You've got a souvenir, the animal gets to live, you've dropped some money in the country. Win-win. What's wrong with that?

If your mental well-being requires killing something for the hell of it, also employ a psychiatrist to work out why. It could be illuminating.